JOHN STREET
| Company Founded: | Pax8 | Graduation Year: | 1978 |
| Title: | Founder, Chairman | Degree: | BBA, Accounting |
| Location: | Denver, CO area | Residence Hall: | Howard |
In the 1970s, entrepreneurship wasn’t a common concept in the Street family. However, when John Street arrived at the University of Notre Dame as a freshman, he declared Accounting as his major for a specific reason:
“I wanted to learn the plumbing of business so I could one day start my own company,” he says. Little did he know that he would go on to start not just one, but several businesses, including four significant companies.
Street almost didn’t make it through his first year at Notre Dame. “I was kind of a misfit,” he recalls. “Originally from Colorado, I moved to Atlanta in the sixth grade and attended a public high school. Although I was raised Catholic, I had never been to a Catholic school. My high school graduating class was mostly girls, and suddenly, I was in a dorm with guys who had mostly attended all-male Catholic high schools. I liked that there were no fraternities or sororities, but the social life was very different. I was discouraged by how hard it was to meet girls, and the cold weather in South Bend was miserable—I wasn’t prepared for a Midwestern winter. I almost transferred, but I decided to stick it out.”
It turned out to be a good decision. During his senior year, Street received several job offers from Big Eight global accounting firms (now the Big Four). He accepted a position as an auditor with Arthur Andersen and moved to the firm’s Denver office to be closer to his family. However, his first assignment was not what he expected.
“I was put on a terrible six-week audit. No one told me the client’s finance team was hostile toward auditors. When a memo came out looking for volunteers to switch to the tax side for tax season, I jumped at the chance. That was much better; our clients actually liked us.”
After two years at Arthur Andersen, Street did something unexpected for a certified public accountant on the fast track: he took a sabbatical. “I could feel myself being pulled into a long career. So, I joined the Peace Corps and went to the Philippines to serve as a business advisor to agricultural co-ops.”
His experience in the Philippines was transformative. Although he encountered challenges, such as discovering corruption in a banking co-op he was advising, the overall experience profoundly changed his life.
“I learned true empathy. If we—Americans—lived the life of Filipinos, we’d be miserable. Despite their hardships, they were happy and always looking for a reason to celebrate. That shaped my character more than anything else in my life and greatly influenced how I approach relationships,” he reflects. “Ultimately, it impacted how I create a corporate culture: put people first, be joyful.”
Street returned to Denver and rejoined Arthur Andersen in January 1982, just in time for tax season. Two significant things happened: he met his future wife, Mary Beazley, with whom he’s been married for 40 years, and he learned how to structure deals—a skill that has served him well for decades.
“Mary was a rock star at Arthur Andersen. In 1984, the firm opened an office for her in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her clients included artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Allan Houser. I had left the firm and was working for a well-known gallery owner. One day, he asked me to fire someone. I told him to do it himself and quit,” Street recalls.
This abrupt break with a prominent businessperson in Santa Fe launched the entrepreneurial career he always wanted. When the savings and loan crisis accelerated in the mid-1980s, Street began financial consulting to help businesses avoid bankruptcy. He was approached by some Texans who had invested in a struggling long-distance telecom company in Colorado Springs. With Street’s help, the company regained its footing, and the owners wanted him to stay on.
But Street had other plans. In 1987, using mostly his and Mary’s money, they purchased their first company, Telephone Express. He continued acquiring small, struggling long-distance telecoms, ultimately buying 11 companies, including the one he had originally advised. Ten years later, he sold the company, earning enough profit to fund many of his future ventures.
Looking ahead, Street deliberately avoided telecoms due to the shrinking market opportunity and instead focused on emerging internet opportunities. This led to the founding of USA.Net in 1995, where he introduced the first web-based email service. Initially, the revenue model was subscription-based, but with new competition from Hotmail and others, the service pivoted to a free model. Street found it challenging to attract investor interest.
“Living in Colorado Springs and trying to raise money in Silicon Valley was nearly impossible,” he says. “People told me to move the company to California, but I refused. We ultimately grew USA.Net to 33 million customers and sold a controlling interest to JP Morgan Chase Private Equity.”
He adds, “A big lesson learned was how hard it was to build a reputation that investors would trust. Once you do that, raising money becomes much easier.”
Leveraging his ability to identify emerging markets, Street founded MX Logic, an anti-spam company, in 2002. It was, he says, an opportunistic niche play. He raised $35 million and, seven years later, sold it to McAfee, a world leader in online protection, for $155 million. Street smiles, “I finally learned how to raise money through venture capitalists.”
Years earlier, in 1993, while strategizing with his new business partner Klaus Dimmler, Street predicted that data storage and software would shift from end-node, on-premise installations to the network layer at public co-location data centers, now known as the Cloud.
In 2012, he and Dimmler teamed up with Ryan Walsh and Liz Baugh to found Pax8. Street calls it his “last hurrah.”
“We had seen the widespread adoption of the new software-as-a-service (SaaS) model delivered via the Cloud. There was a significant opportunity to create a new sector—a virtual marketplace for software—to facilitate access to the growing number of SaaS solutions,” he explains.
Launched as an “easy button” for providers and users of SaaS products, Pax8’s early days were anything but easy. “At this point in my career, raising money was easier, but it didn’t guarantee success. The first four years were very hard. We were $12 million into the business and nearly shut it down. We were literally hanging on for dear life,” he admits.
“But I still believed, and we kept going.”
In 2020, Pax8 experienced a black swan event: the COVID-19 pandemic. With people working from home, the demand for SaaS skyrocketed, and the world finally discovered Pax8. The company’s growth exploded. Today, Pax8 has 1,700 employees supporting 35,000 managed service providers (MSPs), 500,000 small businesses, and 10 million users in their marketplace, generating $2 billion in annual revenue. Street projects the company will grow more than 10X over the next six to eight years and reach 150 million users worldwide.
“The global market for SaaS is underserved. South America and Africa present huge opportunities. Pax8 helps software companies penetrate these markets and democratizes small businesses’ access to technology worldwide,” Street says.
His confidence is fueled by his innate ability to stay a step ahead of the competition. “The Pax8 platform is powered by AI, which allows us to streamline customer service. Even with AI changing rapidly, we’re ahead of the curve,” he says. “We’re also collecting data on how and what people buy and how they use what they buy. This allows us to market the specific SaaS solutions users want.”
He adds, “Our mission is to be the favorite marketplace for IT professionals to buy SaaS products.”
Alongside building Pax8 the company, Street built Pax8 the culture. “I am long past doing this for the money. I wanted to create a joyful place to work, where people can advance their careers and have a good family life. We worked hard to get the mojo right at Pax8.”
At Pax8, as with all his companies, Street prioritizes employees over customers. He hires smart, young people and provides extensive training. “We’re very deliberate about giving people tons of context, explaining why we’re doing things. We create a sense of conspiracy: we’re all in this together, and we’re going to conquer the world. It works. It’s critically important in a large company like Pax8,” he says.
Street’s approach to creating joyful, purposeful companies works. Many of his team members at Pax8 have followed him from company to company, building disruptive companies with him for over 30 years. “A workplace should be more than just work. You have to make sure you don’t take yourself too seriously, but also take care of people financially. We’ll create 50 to 100 millionaires when we exit Pax8.”
The biggest challenges he’s faced with Pax8 have been fundraising and pivoting to profitability. Overcoming both challenges is the result of assembling a talented leadership team. “Our people love them; our board of directors loves them.”
When asked about his biggest win, Street points to two things. “Keeping Pax8 capitalized has been a major accomplishment. In 2023, we did a roadshow to raise private equity money. Morgan Stanley, the most iconic investment bank, organized everything. We did it from Colorado, not Silicon Valley. With Pax8, I’m the proudest poppa in the room.”
The more significant win is closer to home. “Entrepreneurs often have a chaotic personal life. I have a 40-year happy marriage. Mary and I have fun doing meaningful things together.”
Street has received numerous accolades for his efforts. For two consecutive years, Pax8 has been named among the US Best Managed Companies by global advisory firm Deloitte. This program recognizes successful private companies for how well they’re run, what they’ve achieved, their contributions, and the people who make it all possible. As a CPA and former Big Eight accountant, this recognition was particularly gratifying for Street.
Being named CEO of the Year by Colorado Biz Magazine and receiving a medal from the State of Colorado for his contributions to innovation in the state were also gratifying.
Street generously offers this advice to those looking to start companies:
“Be sure you’re good at being bipolar. The entrepreneur’s path is filled with ups and downs. If you can’t handle it emotionally, take yourself out of the game. Pick the game with a lucrative outcome. Whether it’s a big play or a small play, it takes the same amount of time.”
And this:
“Don’t ignore your culture. Be very deliberate about it. Allow the people on your team to speak truth to power. Remove the fear so people feel comfortable. The people at the top? We’re making this up, too. Honesty and transparency are the best way.”